Always Walking by Your Side
by A Half-Empty Glass
Summary: Not good at this..... A world with humans and people with powers. humans have been talking regular and powered humans are doing experiments. Reese is powered, and broken out. A war between humans and powereds is imminent


_**Walk Along Side You**_

_**Prologue**_

There are more than one thousand and one ways to use a knife, and at age 6 and a half Reese witnessed one of the worst of those ways. At midnight while her parents were on one of their becoming increasingly frequent at home dates and her two older siblings were up in their rooms minding their own business, a shadowy figure crept into the house. Now this was a decent neighborhood filled with upper middle class families and pretty good security guards, so crime wasn't as frequent as Reese's parent's at home dates. The mom, a local doctor, and the father, a small time attorney, had no known enemies, so the shadowy figure wasn't an expected or known enemy.

Several hours after the lithe figure had entered the house, a few police cars went to the house after responding to a 911 call. On the phone call a concerned neighbor had noticed lights that hadn't been turned off with a dark shadow passing through the rooms. For the first time in the 20 or so years of the neighborhood's history, a homicide had occurred and worse yet it was concerning a family of four murdered with low key brutality. But when the officers went into the house for investigation, they discovered Reese, the lone survivor.

After finding the child, the officers went through the rest of the house and released this report:

8-17-96

Yesterday morning, Wednesday 16th a homicide occurred at 8463 Marken Rd, at approximately 11:14 pm a family of four was found murdered. Inside officers came across a survivor, a 6 or 7 year old child, female, weighing in at 65 lbs and 4 foot 1 inches. The child had been found hiding in a corner, away from the grotesque scenes, but she was covered in blood and gore. Child Services were called in to question the girl who would not answer any of their questions.

Concerning the house, there were obvious signs of struggles and bloodshed. The two parents bodies were found in the living room on a blood stained yellow couch in the fetal positions. Positions of the bodies were marked as the father covering the mother. Investigators traveled up the west end stairs and entered the third room on the left. Inside the room, the nine year old sister was found among many plush toys stained red. The investigators then left the room, walking to the last door across the hallway, and found the last victim, a fifteen year old male.

It was inside this room that they found all the clues they needed to find the killer. The teenage boy showed signs of having been fooling with a video camera that night and captured audio and video. A crack on the screen of the camera prevented any images from coming through, but sound was still heard. The following is what was heard:

**Victim**: ha ha yeah! duuuuuude this camera is sa-weet!!! Crap what the hell is wrong with the stupid thing? I cant get any images or sou----- ohhkay now its workin!!! Oh man I cannot wait to show Courtney this awesome thing. Maybe now I can finally get that action I deserve. ~silence as the vic fumbles with the camera, trying to shut if off~crap. Oh? sorry ********. huh? you spill your fruit punch? ~blood curling scream~

From the evidence taken from the camera, the identity of the intruder was introduced. For respective purposes, and the fact we haven't been able to contact any relatives, names will not be released. We can say that the intruder is young and will be sent into a facility where they can receive treatment. After the intruder turns 17, they will be released and all of the incident shall be struck from the record.

_**Eleven and a half years later**_

Footsteps resound throughout the metal hallway as the two men walked down it, one was cleancut and wearing a black business suit and the other had a five o'clock shadow with casual clothes. The guard, the unkempt one, hit many cage doors with his metal bar, sometimes just dragging it on the poles as they proceeded down the hallway. After moments of silence the suited man asked, "Hey why is that girl here? Didn't she just do somethin' with a knife? I know she murdered and all, but was it enough to be sent to a place like this?"

"She didn't do it on her own so we decided to let her in this 'special' facility for testing and after numerous experiments we found out interesting things. Apparently she is one of Them," five o'clock shadow replied.

Startled by what had just been said the suited man opened his mouth and closed it almost right after. He stepped forward so he could whisper it to the guard, but the other man stopped him with an arm across the chest. "I wouldn't go any more steps forward if you know whats good for you." The suited man hesitated and then nodded, not noticing the guard's shaking arm.

The guard reached across his own chest and got a firm grip on his bar, as he held his breath he punched in numbers and words onto a keyboard. The cage door they were infront of slid open to reveal what was inside, though all that could be seen was shadows.

The suit peered in and was about to learn a bit further, before he could do so he heard something within the shadows move. a figure began to slowly walk forward, long hair hanging in their--- her---face. Her clothes, spandex, were to "prevent her from changing them," and showed she was underfed.

Scars were showing on the top of her arms, on her stomach and probably were on her back, the light seemed too bright and she shielded her eyes. Oddly, the suit noticed, she would look pretty if she had more food.

"Okay stop your staring and move," the guard ordered, "I need to restrain her hands. Don't let any item or article of clothing get near the hands.

The suit nodded while not removing his eyes from the girl's face, "Is she stupid or something? I mean she hasn't yet spoken or resisted."

"haha no, she's just not used to this kind of treatment, I mean to her this is gentle. Because we had to do testing on her abilities, we were harsh and she is a bit afraid," the other man explained.

"Abilities?" the suit asked this question with genuine curiousity.

"Unlike you or I this girl, Reese I think it was, can do certain things."

"Such as?" as soon as the suit asked the question, the guard sighed with annoyance.

"In her brain, it seems she can use more than what we can. You see, we use only a certain percent of our brain but her kind have their own different percents they use. The more of the brain you use, the better the power. In her case, Reese can transfigure items," the guard carefully explained.

"Transfigure?"

The guard was really starting to get annoyed by the repeating of his words and his colleague's obvious lack of knowledge. Though he sighed, he still explained, "okay, here, say I had a piece of trash or something like that, using 10.5% if my brain I could make it into any object I desire."

In front of the two men, Reese was beginning to become uneasy and behind her body, her restrained hands were opening then closing into fists. The men could tell the subject they were discussing was making her man, but they didn't care about that, they just didn't want her to become agitated.

As talking was not needed at the moment, the three walked down the hallway in silence. The darkness lessened and at last, in total silence save for footsteps, the end of the hallway was in front of them. Reese's eyes had adjusted and the grey of her eyes showed a small bit of anxiety.

The hallway opened up into a large rectangular but disproportional room. There were no windows so the room was dark but not as much as the hallway. The suit glanced at his surroundings from the corner of his eye which was a mistake. By just glancing around him, he began to feel repulsed.

In two ways was he repulsed, one, all around him were glass windows showing ugly views of what transpired inside them. If he had done a complete glance through, which he didn't, he'd have seen the worse room.

Inside the room was a group of about 20 children all dressed like Reese and in this room they were subjected to sometimes deadly tests. In 65% of these tests the subject was maimed or killed.

The suit shifted his attention back to Reese and her tester (the guard.) He, the tester, was waving the bar menacingly at her face. the girl's face, finally showing all her emotion, had a look of defiance. "What's wrong," the suit asked.

"The usual. She still isn't used to going this long without punishment. Usually we give them sparse, light punishments and by doing that we can weaken their resistance. But we do keep it light enough to still get cooperation," the tester explained.

"Okay, so far I have gotten information of what you do, and now tell me why you haven't gotten to the point of releasing her into my custody."

The tester got a cold look in his eyes as his expression hardened. Straightening his shoulders he replied, "I guess you're the impatient type. Fine then. Now follow me and I will get the paper work, unless you want her to stay. she's our best candidate."

"No."

"Okay." The suit walked forward, and Reese did too once the tester nodded, before turning to walk, the suit had noticed her eyes were a different color. She had been confused and her eyes were grey, no she was relaxed and her eyes were soft blue. Even though he wasn't a scientist, the suit could tell Reese's eye were like mood rings.

After a few moments of walking and remarkably no talking, the three arrived at an office. The ordinary office looked out of place in the monstrous facility. The tester grabbed a small stack of papers, "Fill out and give it to the secretary as you leave."

"It was good cooperating with you."

With a quick, "pft, just don't slack off on this paperwork," the tester walked out of the office, stopped in front of a door and then went inside. Reese wearily eyed the suit, her eyes turning a different color again. He chuckled and chucked the paperwork into the garbage, Reese now looked at him with orange eyes. An instant later the suit's grin widened and his shape wavered. Instead of being tall he became about 5 foot 9 (around four and a half inches taller than Reese) and had now a stocky build. He had a nice face, handsome but not like a movie star's, with black hair and sky blue eyes. The transformation meant the man was a shapeshifter, a level two,

Reese stared at him, dumbfounded not able to register this right away. "I'm so damn pepped that this worked! I sure thought he'd see through this ruse. What an idiot, oh sorry, hey Reese! My name is Luke, "he reached out his hand.

Blankly staring at Luke, she grasped his hand and shook, her eyes never leaving his face. "…Why?"

Either not hearing, knowing no answer, or just plain ignoring it, Luke's eyes searched hers, looking for something. "Why," she repeated, a little louder. Luke still stayed quiet.

"WWWHHHYYY!!??" she yelled, that is what Luke was waiting for.

"Your files aren't so secret because I'm like you. I work for CIA which is different than CIA. C is chemically, I is infused, and A is abilities. The company studies so called 'super humans' to see what makes them they way they are."

Reese shook her head even though she understood. For once her eyes stayed a neutral green and she passed her hand over the catish eyes. When Luke looked over at her he saw how she looked in a real light. She was small, about 5 foot 4, with a slim build, and her hair was an array of chin length reds, browns, and blondes.

He knew she must be reasonably terrified and wasn't used to being around someone calm like himself. Unbeknownst to Reese, Luke was also a profiler, so he could tell what people acted like, and even their powers if they had them. "So… Luke," he had to smile when she said his name so quietly, "What do I need to do?"

"Thought ya might ask that, "he began to walk away, then turned and beckoned her to follow.

Reese smirked at his boldness, "No way am I gonna follow you, let me stay by your side, and walk along side you all the way."

_**3 weeks later**_

"Concentrate kid, concentrate, if you don't CONCENTRATE you won't connect," barked an instructor not much different than a drill sergeant.

"Geez Coach, Reese is trying her best," Luke complained, "at least let her rest a bit.

"LUKE! if she tried her best in the battlefield and then rested, SHE WOULD BE DEAD! YOU are a practiced level two and she is not. That means she needs to try harder. If she tried she could do it, you've seen her eyes. You know she can change them with her powers, with little to no effort," the instructor reprimanded him.

"Ah, so you're saying her ever changing eyes are just part of her abilities?" Luke was just guessing but he could see in Coach's eyes that he was right.

"Correct," Coach confirmed, "Maybe you're not such a prodigy profiler as we all thought."

By this point Reese probably had whiplash, as she was turning left when Luke spoke and looked right when Coach did so. Now her eyes turned blue green and they widened in surprise. She was about to reply when a voice from behind replied, "YO GUYS!!! Know what exciting and awesome thing you're doing today?" He awaited for no reply, "A MEETING! YOSH!"

Reese and Luke groaned as Coach just shrugged. Reese asked the voice, " 'Ey, Aron, do you know what it is for?"

"Well hot mama, I am a teleporter NOT a psychic, now FOLLOW!"

Luke chuckled and raised an eye brow at Reese and mouthed "Hot mama?" She shrugged at him, gave him a death glare and nodded at Aron. Reluctantly, because he didn't want to go Luke followed.

When they arrived at the place where the meeting was to be -- you had to be one of them to know it was underground-- they walked into the shack. Waiting inside were three teleporters who made up the "entrance" to the meeting.

"What is this place called again?" Luke whispered to Reese."

"Underground thingy accessed by teleporters?"

"Nice," Luke sarcastically replied, "Oh crap, c'mon Reese they're going."

"Mon Cherie, I shall be the one to take tu down, "Aron offered to Reese.

"Okay I will, BUT if you dare touch my butt I shall be the one to turn your hands and mouth into jello pudding!," Luke roared in laughter when Reese said that. Aron shrugged, not caring, as Reese would have to hold on close, wiggled his eyebrows, and smiled lecherously.

Luke, unnoticed by others, winced and grimaced. The one female transporter, with a smile, walked up to him. She blushed when she held onto him and seductively pushed herself onto him very closely. Finally, which took like forever to Luke, she loosened her hold a bit and with a sharp "snap" the two vanished.

When reaching the Underground, Luke quickly pulled away and walked to Reese. The teleporter caught Reese's eye and scowled, which Reese replied to with a confused smile. Luke sent the "don't even bother" eye roll to Reese, and she got the message.

"EVERYONE HERE? GOOD! NOW LET'S START THIS THING!!!" a voice bellowed.

Because of the loud sound it only took a few seconds or so for all the noise to quiet. "NOW SIT!" that only took a few more seconds.

Luke glanced to his right and groaned when the teleporter came up to him with a, "HI! I'm Nikki, I cannot wait to be good 'friends'," and sat next to him. Nikki scowled at Reese again, who looked once again confused, and Luke rolled his eyes. He turned his body forward and listened to the speech.

"GENERALLY OUR 'RACE' IS NOT AT ODDS WITH HUMANS. BUT AS WITH Reese Soujiya AND OTHER PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KEPT AT FACILITIES, WE HAVE BEEN ENRAGED WITH THE HUMANS. THEY IMPRISON US WHEN THEY CAN CATCH US AND THEN EXPERIMENT. SOMETIMES THEY EVEN KILL THEIR OWN KIND BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THEY HAD ABILITITES, BUT DID NOT! I PROPOSE WE GO TO THE HUMANS AND DISCUSS THIS. BUT BEFORE THAT, ANY SUGGESTIONS?"

"WAR!!" a voice rang out from the crowd.

Cheers erupted from amongst the crowd except from about 20 or so. Luke and Reese were part of the 20 because they didn't want a war. War would bring back facility memories and Luke didn't want that. Beside him Reese was fidgeting at the sound of war.

"Nervous," he asked.

"I need to use the bathroom!," she teased Luke, then paused, "Not really."

"No need to worry! I'll make sure war won't happen."

"It is fine, if we have a war, those who don't want it can get together and try to stop it if possible, "Reese replied.

"What could we do? If we have a war, will we help the humans?" Luke complained and then repeater, "What could we do?"

"Mon Cherie et garçon foo. Would you two mind if I told to stop the talking?" Aron put in.

Luke glared but shut up and Reese laughed, then faced forward. Up on stage the bellowing voice's owner was scanning the crowd, Eyes narrowing he bellowed again," THOSE WHO STAYED QUIET STAND UP. NOW!! AND DON'T THINK I CANNOT TELL WHO DID NOT TALK. NOW STAND."

Wearily, everyone who had been quiet stood. Luke looked around and saw those standing numbered about 30. Of those he recognized were, Micha an earth controller, Connor a phaser, and Kieran a pyrokenetic. Luke hoped that the others standing were as dependable and responsible as them. "ALL OF YOU ON STAGE!"

Reese Luke, and the others stood up and slowly onto the stage they walked. Luke wasn't sure whether to protect Reese from the front or the back. To compromise, he grabbed onto her hand and left only two inches or so of space between them.

There wasn't time to reach, almost simultaneously Reese's hand was ripped from his grasp. He lost sight of her, and looked at the crowd from the corner of his eye. Some of the people in the crowd looked upset at what was happening to those onstage. In the midst of all the turmoil, no once saw Connor and Kieran slip away.

_**Connor and Kieran**_

Connor's feet felt heavy as he ran down the hall with Kieran by his side. Kieran had been the only person near enough that he knew to phase with but he was still grateful. Behind them was no one, but Connor could still imagine what would happen if he was chased, even caught. Even though he wasn't much of a runner, these thoughts made Connor run faster.

Connor knew Kieran could be a hero but not himself, he was too much a coward. The only hope the anti-warrers could hold onto was Kieran. Like stereotypical Irishman, Kieran loved a good fight, whilst Connor sought to avoid them. Connor almost began to wish he had a different ability so the phaser that escaped could be an actual fearless one.

Kieran on the other hand, was thinking ahead. He knew where almost every place in this room was and he planned to use this knowledge to his advantage. All in all, the situation seemed to be going unusually well. Another few hundred yards and the two would be under the room where Kieran planned to go into action. But, he had to decide between a subtle or head on entrance.

Connor decided if for him. "Kieran, I am going to put my feet on your hands. Will you, and I know it'll be appealing to you, throw me up into the wall?"

"Just don't crush my hands, "Kieran rumbled in his very low voice.

Connor laughed and stepped onto the lowered hands. With a small grunt, Connor was thrown into the wall. "Uh Kieran?"

"Yah?"

"You didn't throw me high enough."

"Oh.:

Up in the room above Kieran, Reese and the others were hysterically laughing at Connor. "HEY ASSHOLES! PULL ME UP THE REST OF THE WAY!" Connor commanded.

"Shh, we don't want the guards to hear you. Of course, we will help you," Luke interjected, "Grab onto his uh head and pull everyone. Connor you phase as we pull. On the count of three. One, Two, AND THREE!" Although irritated, Connor was up and out easily.

"Guys? How'll we get you all down?" Connor wanted to know

"Just phase the people through the wall and I will catch 'em," a faint suggestion came from Kieran.

Without another word, Connor grabbed a person's hands. Connor lowered himself down through the wall, and brought the other person to Kieran. This continued with a steady pace until Luke, Reese, Connor, and a telekinetic named Mace, who was about to be lowered, remained when a door opened. The four tensed but gave small yelps.

A hole appeared in the floor and they all fell through it. Kieran who was ushering people the way he and Connor came, had burned a hole into the wall. "Go, go," He said in a hushed voice. In what seemed like slow motion, a 'zing' came from behind Kieran.

Before the zing, an arrow, could hit Connor moved. No one else said anything until they saw what he was doing. "NO!" Luke yelled along with Reese and the others. With a lurch Connor fell forward, and you could see the arrow in his back as he fell to the floor.

Luke went to his knees by Connor's side and flipped him over. With the view of Connor's chin, Reese's eyes narrowed and wetted when it showed the blood on his chin. Connor gave a weak smile as his eyes met Luke's, Reese's, Mace's and finally Kieran's. At that time the blood stopped and a pair of brilliant blue eyes dulled.

Luke laid Connor's head on the ground and went over to Reese, who in turn buried her face into his neck. Kieran who had been standing motionless before, was now very angry. A literal fire bured in his eyes, "You three, go, NOW."

"But--," Luke began.

"MOre'll be coming, I need to kill as many as possible. I'll stop them, they killed by brother and I need my revenge. Now go, I'll definitely be okay," Kieran turned away and faced the hole. Without any words, Reese ran to Kieran and gave him a sharp hug before being led out by Luke, Mace followed behind. But behind they were leaving a friend, for now the only thing they would remember about him was the sight of one close friend, no brother, protecting the other. Reese just knew they would see him again and the fire in his eyes would burn again infront of them.

_**Moving Forward**_

They werehalf stumbling and half running through the hall. The other anit-warrers had been way ahead but stopped to let them catch up. Sure enough the three ran a bit more and the group was in sight.

"okay, you all, we are gonna say your names and abilities," Luke commanded, now in charge.

A tall lanky youth stood, "Zack, illusionist."

"Margret, Shifter, "said a pretty raven haired girl.

"Taylor, I can control water!" said a pretty boy movie star look alike.

The rest of the group named off their abilities and identities. There were eight element controllers, one teleporter, seven telekinetics, four speeders, two other illusionists, two shifters and three copiers. With this collection of abilities helping humans would be easier than thought.

"Dude can I ask why we are helping," Zack asked then in disgust finished, "the humans?"

"If we help the humans the other people like us might recognize this is unnecessary. It is not like we are really siding or agreeing with humans," Luke answered.

Zack shrugged, "Fine with me, so all powerful leader what is the plan?"

"Right now nothing is going to happen. we are going to get out of here and learn how to fight as a team, at least for the most part," said Luke.

"ha," came a snort, "I don't know about hat, you folks are going to have to learn head on," the chilling voice rang out in the almost silent room.

All thirty-three hears turned towards the voice's source, a tall colorless man. From behind him a few too many people appeared in the shadows. "Crap," Micha had spoken for the first time today. "Crap," he repeated, "We are soooo screwed."

"great," Reese thought, "the first thing he says all day and it has to be unfortunate AND probably true."


End file.
